http://tinyurl.com/b53gfdk,
raises a problem that was obvious months ago — not just about how school
test scores were systematically raised under the administration of
Michelle Rhee, but also about the Inspector General’s investigation of
that cheating. These charges are particularly compelling because they
were made in a Frontline documentary produced by John Merrow, who
produced twelve earlier adulatory pieces about Rhee for the PBS NewsHour.

Inspector General Charles Willoughby reported last August that his
office found no evidence of test-score tampering, and Rhee and her
supporters argued that the report completely cleared the District of
Columbia’s Public Schools and her. "The ‘Frontline’ documentary,
however, suggests the inspector general’s investigation may have been
incomplete," writes Brown. Incomplete and incompetent, judging by the
way in which the IG’s office ignored the evidence of Adell Cothorne, the
former principal of Noyes Education Campus, who personally witnessed
teachers cheating by erasing answers on students’ test booklets.

http://tinyurl.com/bhkjj3q.
"And documents obtained by The Washington Times from inside the program,
which is run by civilian Lisa Sutter, show that defective tunnel tickets
are merely the latest sign of dysfunction and attempts to obscure it by
the program, which many see as a cash cow more than a public-safety
unit."

On Wednesday, January 2, while many Washingtonians were at the
Washington Convention Center for the swearing-in ceremony for new and
reelected councilmembers, former Councilman Michael A. Brown was at the
DC Board of Elections (BOE) switching his party registration from
independent to Democrat and picking up nominating petitions to run in
the April 23 special election for the at-large council seat vacated by
Phil Mendelson. After the swearing-in ceremony, Brown campaign workers
approached people as they exited the Convention Center and asked them to
sign Brown’s petitions. However, it soon became apparent that Brown’s
campaign was not adhering to District laws regarding the circulation of
nominating petitions. As a result, on Friday I filed a formal complaint
with the DC Board of Elections and the Office of Campaign Finance
"regarding the manner in which Michael A. Brown and his campaign for the
April 23, 2013, special election are circulating his nominating
petitions. I have personally witnessed and have evidence that 1) his
campaign is forging signatures on the petitions; 2) individuals who are
not registered voters in the District of Columbia are circulating
petitions; and 3) circulators are asking people to sign the petitions
and securing their signatures without asking whether they are registered
voters in the District of Columbia. Moreover, in a clear violation of
the District’s campaign finance laws, Mr. Brown is using campaign
materials (palm cards, stickers, and yard signs) that were paid for by
the Michael Brown 2012 Committee."

Candidates in the April 23 special election must file their
nominating petitions with the signatures of three thousand District
voters by 5:00 p.m. on January 23. As of January 4, fifteen individuals
had picked up petition at the DC BOE. They were Anita Bonds; Diallo K.
Brooks; Michael A. Brown; John Capozzi; Ivan Cloyd; A.J. Cooper; Matthew
Frumin; Jon Gann; George Jackson; Patrick Mara; Perry Redd; Pedro Rubio,
Jr.; John F. Settles, II; Elissa Silverman; and Paul Zuckerberg.

As 2012 comes to an end, two unmistakable trends have emerged: public
schools are being sold down the river to private interests and the rush
to close schools has not resulted in any measurable improvement in
standardized test scores. The Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU) just issued
The Black and White of Education in Chicago’s Public Schools
report on the "underutilization crisis" in the Chicago Public Schools
system. CTU contends that this crisis that has been manufactured largely
to justify the replacement of neighborhood schools by privatized
charters. "When it comes to matters of race and education in Chicago,
the attack on public schools is endemic," said CTU President Karen GJ
Lewis. "Chicago is the most segregated city in the country, and our
students of color are routinely deemed as second-class by a system that
does nothing but present one failed policy after the next."

More specifically, the Chicago Teachers’ Union highlights what the
policy of neighborhood closings and charter openings has led to
increased racial segregation, depletion of stable schools in black
neighborhoods, disrespect and poor treatment of teachers, expansion of
unnecessary testing, decreased opportunities for deep conceptual
learning, increased punitive student discipline, increased student
mobility, and minimal educational outcomes. Locally, DC Action for
Children, a nonprofit advocacy organization, came to a similar
conclusion, that educational outcomes have been minimal in the District
of Columbia. Their newly released study, DC KIDS COUNT, Third Grade
Proficiency in DC: Little Progress (2007-2011), looked at five years
of third grade reading and math test scores from the DC Comprehensive
Assessment System (DC CAS) for insights about citywide proficiency, the
achievement gap, and neighborhood disparities. Their results? "We could
not prove any statistically significant citywide progress from 2007-2011
in reading or math proficiency. The same held true when we broke scores
down by race, by DCPS schools, DC public charter schools, students from
economically advantaged or students from economically disadvantaged
families."

This study neutralizes the rationale used by Chancellor Henderson and
her predecessor Michelle Rhee, which is embedded in the first goal of
the five-year plan DC Public Schools ) which is: "To improve achievement
rates." I personally don’t believe that Henderson’s under-utilization
argument makes any sense. What we know is that the policy of closing
schools has not saved DC Public Schools (DCPS) any money. The evidence
shows us that closing our schools has driven more parents out of our
public schools to charters and elsewhere. It’s a no brainer that less
students in our public schools equals less money for DCPS. DC Public
Schools cannot demonstrate that their continued failed policy, of
closing twenty plus schools every four years, is achieving its number
one goal of improving test scores. So why then are Henderson and other
heads of school districts stuck on stupid nationally, one might ask? The
answer lies in CTU’s report, "A crisis has been manufactured to justify
the replacement of neighborhood schools. There is a real economic
benefit to real estate investors, charter school operators,
philanthropists and wealthy bankers."

An August 2012 Reuters article spells out the reason for the national
push to privatize. "The US spends more than $500 billion a year to
educate kids from 5-18. The entire education sector represents 9 percent
of the gross domestic product, more than energy or technology sectors.
Traditionally, public education had been a tough market for private
firms to break into — fraught with politics, tangled in bureaucracy. . .
. Now investors are signaling optimism that a golden moment has arrived.
They’re pouring private equity and venture capital into scores of
companies that aim to profit by taking over broad swaths of public
education." When the smoke clears in 2013 and all the policy arguments
are made, DCPS will close another twenty schools, give or take a few
concessions, and twelve thousand students and an estimated one thousand
two hundred teachers and school staff members will be thrown under the
bus.

In the years of my self-imposed silence on this forum, I have had to
examine my own need to compromise my personal rights of free expression
due to the necessity of finding and keeping a job. My moral motivations
remained strong but were re-prioritized to actions consistent with being
a career public servant in the District of Columbia and a "single head
of household."

But the wonderful banter on the Civil War and the importance of
recognizing morality as a component of history was like a flame to a
moth. Now blinded by the light of my passion for this topic, may I
humbly suggest a casual reading of Phil Mason’s book, How George
Washington Fleeced the Nation and Other Little Secrets Airbrushed from
History? Mr. Mason and many others have left us with a wealth of
considerations regarding the motivations of central personalities and
movements in early American History. My personal reading of some of this
material left me with the impression that we have greatly romanticized
many events and misidentified many aspects of purposefully deceptive
folklore as "historical facts." For example, most people are grossly
misinformed about the facts related to the Boston Tea Party. Was it
simply a riot or an organized movement against an unfairly burdensome
tax? The answer supported by the actual fiscal impact to the colony
would shock most citizens.

Even more amazing is the fact that many Washingtonians, even those
who completed the DCPS course on the history of the District of Columbia
can not tell you who Columbia is. There is little or no recognition of
the virtues the Founding Fathers were extolling by naming the District
after the allegorical figure of Columbia. When given the opportunity to
speak in public to stakeholders in the District, I carry with me a
picture of Columbia and the "Hail Columbia" poem by P. Wheatley. I
attempt to entertain my audiences very quickly with enough information
to have them want to know more about the origins of how the city was
named and designed. I am romantic enough to believe that the mythology
behind our city’s neoclassical origins could nurture a more inclusive
pride in our city and leaders with greater ethical aptitude.

Enough said, I assume. Hopefully, I have planted a seed sufficient
enough to have our populace question their own ignorance about their
home which is in part responsible for their relative inability to
identify, nurture and support ethical leadership, without compromising
my ability to earn a marginal living wage as a public servant for the
city I love. Hail Columbia!

I, for one, wish that this program [themail, January 3] were taken
off the air. To me, Michele is not a person to be emulated in any way.
This city would have been so much better if she had headed west directly
and never stopped here on the way.

###############

CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

The National Capital Apple Macintosh Users Group (NCA-MUG) will hold
its next monthly meeting on Saturday, January 12, from 10:00 a.m. to
noon, in the first floor meeting room of the Cleveland Park branch of
the DC Public Library. MUG member Paul Suh will present Bento, "the
leading personal database software for iPad, iPhone, and Macintosh."
Additional information can be found at the group’s web site,

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